A New, Improved Steve at NJ.Com?

[fatknightfatty]

 

[RUGiddy777]

@RutgersRaRa , myself and @demauroj had a long conversation with Politi, Duggan and Dunleavy over a few drinks in our hotel when we traveled to Ann Arbor. They were all pretty open about the fact that their job, as journalists, was to write articles that people are going to want to read. That being said, there was a lot of crap going on at RU in the past couple of years that, well, sadly mostly panned out the way their articles were saying it would.

they all, however, said that they would like nothing more than to write some good stuff about RU if it was out there. @demauroj and I challenged Politi to write a positive RU article and he ended up writing a great article on the fans who stick with this program no matter what, and he headlined demauroj as a guy who was amongst a few who traveled to all 12 games last year.

No issues with Politi here and in all fairness, he's been quick to point out the missteps at his alma mater. He can be a snarky prick though, but I'll chalk that up to living in NJ and he's not nearly as funny as he thinks he is.

Can't say I'm a fan of Duggan though - he made his bed in 2013. And frankly, I am tired of 15 articles about the same negative story. The piling on needs to stop.

I'd much rather see us win some games and stop with the self inflicted wounds - but as a wise poster once said, "Rutgers gonna Rutgers"

 

[RUGiddy777]

He is lulling all you guys to sleep. This weekend the honeymoon appears to be ending as we saw articles on the subsidy and how much RU spends on tutoring athletes.

Those are all facts and fair game for reporting.

 

[Scarlet Jerry]

It's amazing what happens when Sports Illustrated scoops the Ledger and is seemingly given early access to breaking news from the athletic dept. before the local paper. Suddenly, the local guys start playing nice. Is it a coincidence, or Jersey style justice?

-Scarlet Jerry

 

[sodakboy93]

I think the media bashing that goes on here is absolutely over-the-top. Every time there's a negative story about Rutgers we get dozens of posts claiming some kind of conspiracy to take the school down or other such nonsense.

 

[mildone]

I think the media bashing that goes on here is absolutely over-the-top. Every time there's a negative story about Rutgers we get dozens of posts claiming some kind of conspiracy to take the school down or other such nonsense.

You're entitled to your opinion. Even if it is wrong. [winking]

Maybe the claims of a conspiracy are a bit over the top. Maybe. But if you've paid close enough attention, you can't help but recognize the pattern of unnecessary negativity and slanted coverage coming from some of the "writers" at NJ.COM/Ledger.

It's perfectly fine to tell it like it is, even when it's pretty bad. There will always be some negativity and in years like the past one, there's going to be a lot of deserved negativity. And homers are always gonna be upset with anything that's not 100% positive, much like on this board.

But this thing with this particular media outlet has been going on for many years. And it's not perfectly fine to constantly inject negatives into articles about positive things. It's not okay to only research and tell one side of a story. It's not okay to restate incorrectly researched information where, for some reason, the mistakes always manage to portray only negatives.

Lastly, the local media can do one of four things. They can (1) dryly report facts and avoid editorializing all together, (b) positively slant coverage, (c) negatively slant coverage or (d) they can work very hard to ensure any editorializing is completely balanced - that last being very difficult to do.

I personally think the smart thing for them to do is lots of (a), with a reasonably attempt at (d) where they err on the side of positivity. They absolutely have that choice. They can do it any way they want. They should cease this love affair with 98% negative slant.

Just my two cents.